TR3driver said:
TOC said:
I followed that whole episode, and while it was front-page all over the country, did anyone else see the two-paragraph final report on page G-16?
Was that the one that talked about a simple, free fix that made it no worse than other cars of the period?
Or the revelation that Ford had decided it was cheaper to pay the claims than to do a recall?
We had a Pinto/Vega wrecking yard up here for years.
They never, as in ever, had a burned Pinto come in.
I saw one, had a flat on the LR, drove off the floating bridge and caught the tire on fire, burned the quarter panel, is all.
Ford, while in the big lawsuit, didn't create any ruckus.
They waited.
They called one witness, the hospital worker who sat with the one survivor until she died.
He related the "deathbed statement", to the effect that they had filled up with gas at a self-serve station, took off down an undivided 4-lane road, and heard the gas cap slide off the roof.
They made a 180 degree turn, stopped in the middle of the road, opened both doors to get the cap.
Guy in a 3/4 ton GMC with a camper doing 60 in a 55 was playing with his tape deck, never saw them.
Shoved the rear bumper under the front seat.
I don't care how many plastic sheilds you have, there is no way they would protect against that.
Shoved the motor through the grille.
The only place you could have had a fuel tank on that car in that accident that it would not have ruptured and/or exploded was in the front fenders over the wheels.
Case against Ford dismissed.
Small item, fourth or fifth section, back page.
Wasn't "correct" after all the <span style="color: #FF0000">edited to remove any possibility of political implication</span> who KNEW what the problem was pontificated for months and months.
We all were puzzled as to why the focus on this, when the blowing-up VW Bugs we saw in wrecking yards (guess where the gas tank is on them) are never, ever mentioned as a "problem".
Almost like up here near Seattle, anytime an airliner goes down it's a "Boeing aircraft crashes!" even though you look at a Fokker, Airbus, or whatever in the photo.
You won't find much of any of this anymore, as it's not in compliance with the "bash american products" stance, but I followed it closely when it happened.